PRESIDENT BUSH'S move to eliminate tactical nuclear weapons and his "stand down" order ending four decades of Strategic Air Command alerts has prompted predictable calls from Congress to turn all America's swords into plowshares.Typically, the lawmakers proposed defense cutbacks affecting other lawmakers' states. For example, Sen. Sam Nunn of aircraft-building Georgia called to an end to the ground- and space-based Strategic Defense Initiative, while contending America still needs large numbers of the B-2 bomber.

Recent satellite imagery suggests that North Korea has greatly expanded its uranium enrichment capabilities. The nation just promised to launch more long-range rockets "soon. " And, reportedly, labs in Pyongyang are hard at work developing nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland. With the North Korean threat apparently mounting, it's essential for the United States to continue investing in missile defense. Missile shield technologies first gained attention in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a bold endeavor called the Strategic Defense Initiative.

President Bush can hardly be surprised that Democrats have reacted to his sweeping nuclear disarmament initiatives by calling for more of the same. That is in keeping with the party's dovish stance since the Vietnam war, despite opinion polls indicating that Americans are more inclined to entrust the national security to Republicans.Democrats remain viscerally committed to a national policy more focused on domestic needs -- not a bad issue when the country is suffering a long, nagging recession.

If Michael D. Griffin wins Senate confirmation to be NASA's next administrator, the space agency may need to clear a wall in his new office to hold all seven of his academic degrees. Friends and colleagues describe him as exceptionally bright, ambitious and on a rising career path that, in retrospect, seemed designed to put him on top at NASA. Since he first joined the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel in the 1980s, Griffin has rocketed through a series of increasingly demanding aerospace jobs in government, academia and industry - earning five master's degrees (in aerospace science, electrical engineering, applied physics, business administration and civil engineering)

WASHINGTON -- Defense contractors have been granted a one-year reprieve from cuts by the Clinton administration's military budget, which would shrink by $10 billion largely through a reduction in the number of personnel.The $263 billion request to Congress, released yesterday, would preserve what Defense Secretary Les Aspin called "controversial weapon systems," pending a yearlong Pentagon review of strategic and tactical changes dictated by the collapse of the Soviet Union."They [Soviets]

Recent satellite imagery suggests that North Korea has greatly expanded its uranium enrichment capabilities. The nation just promised to launch more long-range rockets "soon. " And, reportedly, labs in Pyongyang are hard at work developing nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland. With the North Korean threat apparently mounting, it's essential for the United States to continue investing in missile defense. Missile shield technologies first gained attention in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a bold endeavor called the Strategic Defense Initiative.

RIGHT-WING propagandists have discovered how to use the Persian Gulf war, which many of them oppose, to ride an old hobbyhorse back into the sunlight. Turn on the television, look at their columns, and learn two new meta-facts:* We should praise the heavens for President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, for giving us the Patriot missiles, now famous for shooting down Iraqi Scud missiles.* We have Reagan's fat increases in military spending to thank for winning the war.The first is pure baloney; the second contains a grain of very misleading truth.

If Michael D. Griffin wins Senate confirmation to be NASA's next administrator, the space agency may need to clear a wall in his new office to hold all seven of his academic degrees. Friends and colleagues describe him as exceptionally bright, ambitious and on a rising career path that, in retrospect, seemed designed to put him on top at NASA. Since he first joined the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel in the 1980s, Griffin has rocketed through a series of increasingly demanding aerospace jobs in government, academia and industry - earning five master's degrees (in aerospace science, electrical engineering, applied physics, business administration and civil engineering)

President Bush proposed:* A bank reform plan that relies on the banking industry to shore up the federal deposit insurance fund.* A transfer of $15 billion in domestic programs from the federal government to states in a single consolidated grant.* That Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan head a joint congressional and Federal Reserve Board study of a capital gains tax incentive.* Elimination of political action committees.* A comprehensive national energy strategy combining conservation, development, and greater use of alternative fuels.

WASHINGTON -- In a stiff challenge to the Pentagon's goal of building a "star wars" missile shield, the House yesterday slashed President Bush's $4.7 billion request for the program by more than half, to $2.3 billion.The 225-189 vote sent a clear signal to the Pentagon that support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, waning since President Ronald Reagan left office nearly two years ago, has begun to plummet.Among Maryland's six Democratic representatives, Benjamin L. Cardin, Steny H. Hoyer, Tom McMillen and Kweisi Mfume voted for the measure, whild Beverly B. Byron and Roy P. Dyson voted against it. Maryland's two Republicans split on the measure: Constance A. Morella voted for the bill and Helen Delich Bentley voted against it.The House took the action during its week-long debate on a $283 billion defense authorization bill.

WASHINGTON -- Defense contractors have been granted a one-year reprieve from cuts by the Clinton administration's military budget, which would shrink by $10 billion largely through a reduction in the number of personnel.The $263 billion request to Congress, released yesterday, would preserve what Defense Secretary Les Aspin called "controversial weapon systems," pending a yearlong Pentagon review of strategic and tactical changes dictated by the collapse of the Soviet Union."They [Soviets]

PRESIDENT BUSH'S move to eliminate tactical nuclear weapons and his "stand down" order ending four decades of Strategic Air Command alerts has prompted predictable calls from Congress to turn all America's swords into plowshares.Typically, the lawmakers proposed defense cutbacks affecting other lawmakers' states. For example, Sen. Sam Nunn of aircraft-building Georgia called to an end to the ground- and space-based Strategic Defense Initiative, while contending America still needs large numbers of the B-2 bomber.

President Bush can hardly be surprised that Democrats have reacted to his sweeping nuclear disarmament initiatives by calling for more of the same. That is in keeping with the party's dovish stance since the Vietnam war, despite opinion polls indicating that Americans are more inclined to entrust the national security to Republicans.Democrats remain viscerally committed to a national policy more focused on domestic needs -- not a bad issue when the country is suffering a long, nagging recession.

RIGHT-WING propagandists have discovered how to use the Persian Gulf war, which many of them oppose, to ride an old hobbyhorse back into the sunlight. Turn on the television, look at their columns, and learn two new meta-facts:* We should praise the heavens for President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, for giving us the Patriot missiles, now famous for shooting down Iraqi Scud missiles.* We have Reagan's fat increases in military spending to thank for winning the war.The first is pure baloney; the second contains a grain of very misleading truth.